Interview: Opeth (Pt. 2)

Interview: Opeth (Pt. 2)

Genre : More Music

Type: News

Author : Super Admin

Date : Tue, 27 May 2008

The '70s vibe of the artwork is reminiscent of The Exorcist a little bit.

[Laughs] That's cool. That wasn't really the inspiration. I told our artist Travis that I wanted a picture of complete isolation, and I wanted it to be very dark, as it always is, in a way. It's a lot more subtle, this time around. There are lot of hidden meanings and messages in there that we never really had before. It was a pleasure doing the artwork this time around, but I guess I was more picky. Travis sent out shit loads of ideas. I was really picky with some of those images. I didn't really take an inspiration from The Exorcist, but that's cool. That washed out '70s vibe was what we wanted. If you had the cover picture without the Opeth logo on there, most people would probably see that it's an Opeth album anyways. It goes along with our past artwork as well in a way.

In terms of the song structures, there was a Middle Eastern vibe, because of those acoustic passages.

Yeah, I don't really listen to that much Middle Eastern music. However, on some of the Led Zeppelin albums like Led Zeppelin III and some of the Rainbow material, my favorite songs had a bit of a Middle Eastern vibe to them. It inspires me to no end, and I think it's been in the back of my mind before. It also allows me to bring in more major chords, which I'd been afraid of in the past. However, I can still use them now and make them sound evil. Now, I understand that the major chords can create an emotional dynamic to the music and make the evil-sounding parts more evil and make the uplifting parts more uplifting. We've always dealt with those dynamics.

“

Maybe it has something to do with the lineup changes, but I just felt more of a freedom with these songs.

”

There's always been a Zeppelin style to your music.

I love Led Zeppelin III, maybe it's not my favorite, but a song like "Friends" inspires me to no end. I can still put it on after hearing it for 25 years and still get inspired. There's a lot of good stuff on there. A lot of people say we're the Zeppelin of Death metal or something, and I wouldn't say that [Laughs]. However, they certainly are a band that's inspired me throughout the years, but not more than Priest or Deep Purple. The perception from our listeners is that we live in the forest and in the snowy mountains. In a way it's true. That's the image that I want our music to have in a way. It's all different from person to person. Certainly, the views that we have in Sweden are very defined. We also recorded the album in the middle of winter. This new album is more progressive. I think Ghost Reveries summed everything we did up to that point, and we made a really great record with that one. This one is pushing us forward, and I don't know why that it is. Maybe it has something to do with the lineup changes, but I just felt more of a freedom with these songs. I felt like whatever boundaries were there, I was like, "Fuck it, just go for it."